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Planting

Check soil moisture

When planting, its important to check soil moisture levels in the seed zone regularly. There are three options: planting dry and watering up (cools the soil and crop establishment is rapid); pre-irrigation (may be preferred when the soil is very dry and temperatures are high, and when there's a large seed bank of difficult to control weeds); or planting on rain moisture (done by dryland growers; many irrigators also aim to do this to save water).

Establish a refuge

It is a requirement under the Bollgard II resistance management plan for growers to establish a refuge. The aim of the refuge is to generate significant numbers of susceptible months that have not been exposed to the Bt proteins in Bollgard II. Moths produced in the refuge will desperse to form part of the local mating population, where they may mate with any resistant moths emerging from Bollgard II crops, delaying the development of resistance.

Survey for disease symptoms

Soil pathogens such as rhizoctonia, pythium, black root rot and Fusariam can retard and kill young plants during and after emergence. This is increasinly prevalent outside of the ideal soil temperatures for soil establishment (16-28 degrees C), where there are high levels of cotton crop residues and in-fields with a history of disease.